Lack of leadership hammers the last nail in Congress' coffin

HYDERABAD: More than anything, lack of inspiring leadership seemed to have done the Congress in in the byelection to the Dubbaka Assembly seat.Though the grand-old party’s new Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore scripted sound strategies to reach out to the people, they did not cut any ice with them, as a result of which it not only finished third in the list but also lost security deposit.

In fact, the Congress party had taken the byelection very seriously, with an intention to reverse the slide that had set in after its debacle in the 2014 Assembly elections and later in 2018.Though Congress was the party that had delivered Telangana its Statehood, the leaders frittered away the opportunity of riding to power and allowed the TRS’ juggernaut sway the elections. In the days that followed, the Congress could not gain much traction and after the 2018 Assembly elections, the Chief Minister with his salami-slicing tactics reduced the grand-old party’s strength to six from 19.

Though the Congress won three seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the momentum fizzled out later on. After Manickam Tagore was posted as the party’s in-charge for Telangana, he had tried to set the house in order and deployed 140 leaders in all villages across Dubbaka Assembly constituency to ensure that the party would put out a decent performance. However, the strategy fell flat on its face.

After its ignominious defeat, some party workers set fire to TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy’s effigy in erstwhile Warangal district, demanding that he should be removed at once.The change of guard, which has been long time coming, had not happened which too made the people lose their faith in the party and that it would spring back to life. The party remained rudderless with old guard pulling it in different directions. Uttam too was unable to provide a proper leadership, with a section working against him all the time.

One analyst said that the reason why the PCC was not reconstituted was because the AICC itself was not in proper shape. “Had the party leadership paid attention to Telangana, there would have been some change. The party has credibility, only the leaders do not,” said a Congress leader, attributing the humiliating defeat to lack of leadership.